Dave Steckel’s style resonates with MU defense

One line in Dave Steckel’s bio in the Missouri football media guide has come to define the 53-year-old defensive coordinator.

Steckel served in the United States Marine Corps from 1975-78.

For years, those words have formed the identity most fans associate with Gary Pinkel’s longtime linebackers coach. They explain the gruff exterior, the fire-breathing sideline demeanor, the glare that players and sportswriters alike have experienced.

The Marine stereotype fits Steckel like a sheath to a saber.

But it only begins to tell the coach’s story.

At his core, Steckel is a teacher. And so was older brother Les Steckel — also a Marine, also a coach. After all, they are their father’s sons.

For 38 years, Bill Steckel taught advanced-placement high school math in Allentown, Pa., an area in Eastern Pennsylvania where high school football rules Friday nights and brings communities together.

“It’s got that Texas feel to it,” said former NFL linebacker Matt Millen, who grew up in the area.

But Bill Steckel didn’t coach. He taught.

“He’d boast on how many kids he’d send to MIT and the Ivy League,” Les Steckel said of his father, who died in 2002. “He was quite the teacher, quite the disciplinarian. That bloodline runs through Dave and I. … I always tell people being in the Marine Corps for 30 years was like Boy Scout camp after living in my house.”

Missouri’s defense knows the feeling. Since Pinkel promoted Steckel to coordinator two years ago, the defense has taken his all-for-one, one-for-all ethos. Beset by injuries last year, the defense carried on and became the backbone of Pinkel’s program, seemingly overnight. While the usually prolific spread offense stalled some, the defense became Missouri’s best under Pinkel, yielding just 16.1 points per game, best in the Big 12 and MU’s stingiest since 1981.

“He’s got that military background, which you can sense and feel,” senior linebacker Will Ebner said. “But when you’re off the field, he’s the first one to give you a hug and love you up. When you have a coach like that who you can connect with and you can love off the field, it makes it that much easier to play for him and do what he asks of you on the field.”

Steckel would rather chew glass than accept personal accolades. “It’s not my defense,” he said. “It’ll never be my defense. It’s our defense.” But last year he was nominated for the Frank Broyles Award, given to the nation’s top assistant. Earlier this month, Pinkel promoted him to assistant head coach, along with offensive coordinator David Yost.

As the season kicks off with Saturday’s visit from Miami (Ohio), Steckel’s defense is again considered the team’s strength.

“I like their passion,” Steckel said. “I like their chemistry. I like how they play with each other. I think they care and love each other. That’s half the battle.”

For Steckel, reaching this point in his career was its own battle. After serving in the Marines, Steckel enrolled at NCAA Division II Kutztown State College — now Kutztown University — where he played center. He’s one of five assistants on Pinkel’s staff who played center in college. How good was he?

“They’d all be sitting on the bench if we were on the same team together,” he joked.

After a season as a Kutztown student assistant, he gradually climbed the coaching ladder. There was a year coaching high school in Shillington, Pa. Two years as a Miami (Ohio) grad assistant. He coached the defensive line at Ball State. Then another grad-assistant term, this time at Minnesota under Lou Holtz. Next up, three seasons at Dickinson College, a Division III program in Carlisle, Pa.

By then, Les Steckel had already spent nearly a decade coaching in the NFL, including one season as the Minnesota Vikings head coach.

“I always say he was the officer, I was the enlisted guy,” Steckel said. “He was in the NFL; I was working my way up through Division III.”

Looking back, Steckel appreciates the grind that each rung entailed.

“Quite frankly, that Division III job at Dickinson College was one of the greatest jobs I’ve ever had,” he said. “The kids weren’t on scholarship. They had to pay a lot of money to go to school there. Then they came out every afternoon and let me yell at them. It took a special kind of kid to do that.”

From there, he coached at Lehigh, a I-AA program, then spent four years under Pinkel at Toledo. He left in 1996 to join Terry Shea’s staff at Rutgers then reunited with Pinkel at Missouri in 2001.

Les Steckel, 65, believes his younger brother has became one of the game’s elite coaches.

“He recognizes he doesn’t make any tackles, he didn’t intercept the ball or strip it,” Les said. “But he knows he’s got a responsibility to make sure that his team plays with a lot of energy, emotion and enthusiasm. He gets that every week. … He gets his kids’ engines running as well as any coach I’ve been around.”

Millen could discern that much from studying film of last year’s defense. As an analyst for ESPN, the four-time Super Bowl winner and former Detroit Lions president worked last year’s Insight Bowl, before which he visited with his old high school friend. On film, Millen could see Steckel’s imprint on the Tigers.

“My No. 1 rule above all is it takes no talent to hustle,” Millen said. “It’s just effort. When I see a guy who coaches effort, it shows up on the tape. Well, it shows up on his tape.”

Steckel’s ability to connect with players sets him apart from other coaches, Millen said.

“If you ever hear a coach say, ‘I went over it five times and he still doesn’t get it,’ that’s an indictment of poor teaching skills,” Millen said. “The first thing a coach has to do is identify how his students learn. Then you can get the best out of every kid. Dave has that. … Dave is smart enough to figure out how a kid learns.”

Before becoming president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in 2005, Les coached for more than 30 years, mostly as an NFL offensive coordinator. Since he retired from coaching, he’s made frequent visits to MU games. He was on the sideline for last year’s upset of Oklahoma, when his brother’s defense stifled the Sooners in a 36-27 victory.

Watching up close, Les has realized his younger brother is ready for the next step.

“Dave would be a great head coach someday — and soon,” Les said. “The thing about Dave that I’ve always watched is he sets an atmosphere of tremendous intensity and tremendous passion for the players. He really cares about them. But if they’re not doing their job the way they’re supposed to, he’s not bashful.”